Fighters of Islamic-State:

Special forces of the U.S. and their allies have provided support to Libya’s local forces in their fight against the Islamic State (IS) terrorist organisation in the country, Russia’s Izvestiya newspaper reported on Friday.

According to the paper, the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) sent forces to Libya and back within the framework of supporting Libyan forces affiliated with the Government of National Accord in their fight with the IS and other terrorist groups.

Additionally, AFRICOM stated that the practice of sending special forces to Libya would continue.

Undisclosed sources in the U.S. Army and Congress also said earlier, as cited by Izvestiya, that the U.S., the UK, France, and Italy had deployed a few dozen of their own special forces soldiers in Libya for the same purpose.

In July, Prime Minister of the Libyan Government of National Accord Fayez Sarraj told Sputnik that there were concerns that IS militants would enter Libya after having been defeated in Syria and Iraq.

NAN reports that a Libyan military intelligence report, published by the Daily Telegraph in March, said that up to 700 Isil terrorists had re-grouped in the valleys and desert areas south of the city of Bani Walid.

An estimated 3,000 terrorist fighters from different groups including al-Qaeda are believed to be operating in Libya.

The report stated that the terrorists were financing themselves from illegal immigration to Europe, a multi-billion-pound business, as well as gold smuggling.

Small twenty-man terrorist units travel the country undetected along service roads that run alongside hundreds of miles of the Great Manmade River.

The huge irrigation system, with 1,750 miles of pipes, was built for 20 billion dollars in the 1980s by former Libyan Muammar Gaddafi.

(Sputnik/NAN)
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